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 Travel & Outdoors | March 2008 
A Few Essentials for Cuban Travel
 Esquire.com
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| | (Steve Dibblee/iStockPhoto) | | |
Going to Cuba? Five tips on what you’ll need - besides a good alibi for the government.
1. Take Canadian cash. Every purchase made with a credit card in Cuba gets hit with an 11 percent fee. It’s even worse for American greenbacks - not many places will exchange them in the first place, and when they do, the rate is lousy.
2. Go to the cigar shop at the Conde De Villaneuva Hotel. It’s a dark, low-ceilinged joint with a good selection of singles and boxes. Plunk your ass on one of the big green armchairs in there and puff away an afternoon. 202 Calle Mercaderes; 011-53-7-862-9293/9294.
3. Stay at the Parque Central. The Saratoga has great rooftop pizza, but the Parque Central, the other five-star hotel in Old Havana, has a bigger pool, more sun chairs, a better bar, and the buffet breakfast (included with the room cost at each) is better, too. About $200 per night; Calle Neptuno at Prado and Zulueta; 011-53-7-860-6627/6629.
4. Get a taxi with air-conditioning. Most of the cars in Cuba blow out enough smoke to rival the city’s ancient coal-fired power plants, so it’s windows up!
5. Bring a little something for the kids. You’ll see kids playing lots of street games. I’ve always wanted to join them, but I’ve been held back by the thought of losing their cruddy old ball. So the next time I go, I’m bringing tennis balls. I imagine tossing one of those into the game would make you the champion of the world, or at least help balance the karmic ledger for whatever bad things you do while you’re down here.
How to Sidestep the Cuban Travel Ban
Unless you’re a lucky Canadian, you’ll most likely need to pull some strings to make it to Cuba. Here’s how to do it.
Unless you have a special license, like those granted to humanitarian groups and journalists, or live in the other, simpler United States, up north, you’ll need to fly into Havana from another country to sidestep America’s travel ban. Canada and Mexico are popular points of departure, with flights to Havana from Toronto starting at roughly $750 and from Cancún at $300. Book your round-trip flight through a foreign travel agent on an airline like Air Canada or Mexicana. Once you reach Havana, ask the customs agent not to stamp your passport, to avoid raising any flags later on. |
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